


Nondescript Shadows

by Deadly Night_Sh1ft (CrookedMath)



Series: Unnecessary Shadows [3]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Empath, Eugenics, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Infiltration, Revelations, Secrets, Unethical Experimentation, ikiryo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 08:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7883098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrookedMath/pseuds/Deadly%20Night_Sh1ft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An isolated building piques the red reaper's curiosity on one of her worst days. A certain albino from another place may be the key to unlocking the building's secrets, but could she be in for more than she bargained for?</p><p>**This bridges the gap between chapters 8 and 17 in part 1 of this series, where in chapter 8 Grell has knowledge of the Ikiryo prior to any experimentation and in chapter 17 where she is obviously friends with the OC. It might help to familiarize yourself with part 1, but it's no big deal if you don't.**</p><p>***DISCLAIMER*** I do not own Kuroshitsuji or any of its characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nondescript Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Emily's innermost thoughts +
> 
> Grell is only referred to as a male in technical terms for my OC's "scientific" purposes only. Other than that, the preferred female pronoun is used.  
> Empaths are not human, therefore, albinism will not have shared traits with that of humans. 
> 
> Enjoy.

The pretty red reaper sat alone, sullen, and dejected on a bench outside the library wondering why this nondescript white building suddenly appeared out of the blue and why this sudden influx of short people with glowing eyes seemed to show up with it. There had to be some connection between it, the odd little people with glowing eyes, and the reapers who had just returned from some place no one seemed to know existed nor spoke about. She growled in irritation when a figure blocked her view of the building and refused to move until it was acknowledged.

"Bad day, huh?" a feminine voice with a strange accent inquired.

"You could say that," the red reaper grumbled.

"Me too. My name is Emily," the accented voice's owner introduced. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Sure, whatever," the reaper responded, looking up at a female in a lab coat with long, pin straight white hair, skin without pigment, and emotive, glowing green eyes housed in a face that had forgotten how to smile. "I'm Grell Sutcliff. Obviously, you're not a reaper. Did you come here with the rest of those people with the glowing eyes?"

"I did. We're Empaths. Your race destroyed our world," the albino answered pointedly. "However, we aren't here for refuge. So, what's got you down, Miss Grell?"

Red Death's eyes went wide in awe behind her stylish red frames that someone she had just met addressed her as the lady she is without her having to go on a melodramatic diatribe about her feelings versus her biology. "At least _someone_ knows how to address me by my proper title," the feminine reaper stated emphatically.

"I try to be respectful when the occasion arises," the other said with a shrug.

"Well, Emily, I don't know why I'm about to tell you this since we just met and all, but I don't really have any friends and I need to vent. So, I'm just going to spit it out..." The red reaper launched into a melodramatic tale of the day's unfortunate events followed by a soliloquy of unrequited love for a certain cold, cruel, pruner wielding reaper that she'd harbored since their final exam at the Academy, and the painful woe of always having her love for him so cruelly rejected to the point of physical abuse. "And the irony is, I can tear the brute to pieces with my bare hands, but those cold, stoic eyes are just so attractive," the redhead finished with dramatic shivers running up and down her spine.

"That sounds like a terrible day. I feel sorry for you. That William sounds like a real asshole to think he can go around hitting pretty ladies. I'm sorry you're so mis-"

Foreign words and malicious laughter drifted toward the two sullen beings on the bench from a group of females across the sprawling green.

"They're talking about me, Miss Grell," the white haired woman assured with an irritated glow flashing in her emerald eyes.

"Why would that be?" asked a curious red reaper.

+Should I reveal the entire truth about what I am? No...not yet?+

Something akin to resentment settled in with the resignation within the green glow of the white haired woman's eyes. "I'm an albino, however, where albinism is common for my race, my height is not. I'm much taller than the others, which is extremely rare." The female sighed in quiet resignation. "I'm used to it, so don't let their mockery bother you. They will face Judgement one day."

Red Death hummed in response. An odd silence settled between the red and white ladies after a while as the reaper thought of ways to breach the subject concerning the Empath's presence in her realm and her race's connection to the nondescript white building standing apart from the rest of its peers. The red reaper nervously bit her lip when the right question finally came to mind, however, just as she was going to spit it out, the albino answered it for her as though she had read her mind.

"You're wondering why we're here and why that new building seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, I'm guessing. I'll show you. Come with me," the albino beckoned. She could tell by the bewildered look on the red reaper's face that she hit the nail on its proverbial head. "Miss Grell, I'm an Empath, I can read minds and interpret emotions."

+And much more than that.+

The effeminate reaper cast hesitant glances between the nondescript white building and the abnormally tall Empath as though she were being led into a trap. The pretty red harbinger of death knew nothing of the people whose world was supposedly destroyed by her race, and she was damn well aware that reapers sure as hell didn't take in refugees unless they were of their own kind. Clearly, the Empaths weren't refugees nor were they prisoners, otherwise she wouldn't be considering befriending the intimidating albino. The element of danger sent excited shivers down the red reaper's spine. The only other logical alternative available for the Empaths sudden appearance in her realm had to be in connection with the reapers who had just returned from a place that no one had ever heard of or talked about. The motives had to be ulterior and blood thirsty in nature. With her curiosity in overdrive, a wide, razor sharp grin spread over the blood red reaper's scarlet stained lips. "Lead the way, Emily."

+Darkness is foreseen for them. I tried warning him, but he refuses to leave or let the girls find respite elsewhere. That stubborn reaper...But that's why I love him. Had I not vowed to sever from her, I'd let him claim me. Damn you, Marcus, your overprotective stubbornness will be your end.+

The red and white pair silently walked down an ominous hallway in the white, nondescript building set apart from the rest of its peers. The only sound in the eerie corridor was the clicking of heels as they briskly walked further and further into the core of the odd little building. The albino's slender fingers toyed with her watch, and the longer they did, the dimmer her green eyes glowed. "Grell, technically you aren't supposed to be here, so it's important that you keep quiet. You don't need to worry about those girls who teased me earlier or any other females here." The white lady turned and faced the reaper in red with deadly seriousness emanating from her polished emerald orbs. "They are my subordinates, however, that doesn't mean they'll automatically kiss your ass because you're my guest. That's not our way where we come from."

The redhead nodded in response as the pair continued down the hall until they reached a room that looked like a bizarre, futuristic torture chamber. Chains connecting plexiglass boxes were suspended from the ceiling, numbering twelve in all. Tables with leather straps waited eagerly for subjects to be laid down upon them. Strange instruments the red reaper could have never thought of, even in her wildest dreams lined the walls and adorned tables. A buzzing machine radiated rhythmic energy from an unknown source. The redhead found herself frozen by the hypnotic electrical current thrumming through her subconscious. Immense waves of indescribable pleasure began washing over her as she was further lulled into the low sound of the electrical current echoing in her mind. "No...stopping..."she inaudibly whispered.

"Miss Grell, this room is dangerous to males, especially to those of your kind. Please follow me for your safety," the albino advised as she guided the hypnotized scarlet reaper through the electric utopian torture chamber. "I'm sorry, Miss Grell, we have to cut through that room to get to my office. I suppose I should explain. I'm a scientist of sorts and this is an electrical engineering lab. It's not an entirely accurate description, but it's the closest I can think of at the moment. The sensation you felt was a simulation of the power of a Rarity's mind. Left uncontrolled, males become ensnared by them, especially reapers. It's harmless to females. Reapers capable of feeling are extremely rare." The unusually tall female Empath scrutinized her new red haired friend with sharp focused green light.

+She has long hair, the capability to feel, originality, and madness like the ancients of her kind, but lacks the wisdom that accompanies the madness and the metal that adorns the originality. It's almost as though she was a hybrid of...I wonder if she is a recycled recycled suicide? A reaper returned again as a reaper? Or could it be that Grell truly is a Transcendental? I've heard a legend from long ago of a Transcendental who committed suicide, but the time doesn't add up. I must know. Dear Goddess, what should I do now?+

"I don't mean to pry, Miss Grell, but how long ago was it that you became a reaper?"

The redhead tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Forty-six years ago," she replied in a haughty tone, narrowing her toxic green catlike eyes at the albino scientist. "Don't you think it's rude to ask a lady her age?"

"I have my reasons," the woman replied shortly.

"Which are?" the red reaper pressed.

The white haired Empath huffed in annoyance. "You're too young to have reacted that way to the simulation. Your reaction was a near replica to that of the ancients of your race. You're trapped between two worlds it seems. Male and female, old and new, originality and conformity, passion and anger, love and hate, loneliness and being alone. Loneliness...that's a feeling the ancients are all too familiar with, which is why they're the most susceptible..." she trailed off as a sad glow crept over sharply focused emerald eyes.

+Just as Marcus reacts when I release his long hair from dark woven softness, his beautiful eyes trapped in my gaze and at my mercy. The way his long fingers drift down the tattoo on my sternum and the soft smile it brings to his lips makes my flesh crawl with delight. As his dark waves slip through my fingers, I always think of the day I fell for his pale green and dark amber eyes, and relish in the fact that he is just as enchanted by my eerie glow. His darkness drew me in. My light keeps him begging.+

"Emily, are you ok?" A concerned semi feminine voice broke through the Empath's forlorn thoughts. "You keep messing with your watch and all of a sudden started looking sad. Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"I'm just missing someone I love." The albino's soft reply lingered in the red reaper's ears. "Isn't he beautiful?" She presented the open watch face containing a picture of a leather clad reaper with a long, dark braid in circular, wire frame glasses. Dozens of piercings adorned both of his ears and a single piercing sat off to the left side of his bottom lip. Two tiny, brightly smiling girls with technicolor hair and glowing, mismatched eyes happily clinging to each other were perched in one of his long arms.

Red Death studied the small memento intently. There was something familiar about the smiling dark reaper in the photograph. She thought back to her Academy days, trying to place a name with the face, but the history books never showed their kind with smiles on their faces, nor did they mention the ancients and the legend by their given names. She remembered from her history lessons that Legendary Death reaped with a leather clad man with the ultimate customized Death Scythe. Like a vampire, the scythe's image was elusive to photography. It's image was manifested out of the fears of those about to meet their end through the apocalyptic reaper. "Is that the Reaper of Nightmares?" Red Death unintentionally squeaked. "He used to reap alongside Legendary Death and the Gray Shadow according to our history books at the Academy." The albino woman nodded with a fond sadness glowing in her green eyes. "And what are they?" the redhead questioned, referring to the tiny girls in the reapers arms. "They're so tiny!"

"His name is Marcus Jones. I'm surprised your history books omitted that. The little girls he's holding are Rarities, Miss Grell. Marcus took them in the day our world was destroyed. This picture was actually taken last year when everyone returned from my burned world. He told me that he found them hidden beneath the corpses of a reaper and a priestess. When I can get away from my work, I go visit Marcus and the girls. The little one with the big eyes is so adorable. She won't shut up about how pretty she thinks Marcus' friend is. Her eyes take on the strangest glow when she speaks of him. Darkness is here, Miss Grell. A war is being waged," the Empath warned. "Those girls are in danger." The scientist snapped her watch face shut. "Come visit me anytime you want to talk."

"Same place, same time?" the feminine reaper asked hopefully.

"Sounds good to me."

"You've got a deal. How about tomorrow?"

"I'll agree to that," the lady scientist promised.

xxxxxx

For several years the red reaper and albino Empath met every day and spoke of things women often do. Both outcasts were glad to have found a friend in one another as time went on. Even when the white lady's lover was killed, she didn't shed a tear, but the melancholy sheen cast over her shining emeralds gave away her true feelings regarding the dark reaper's death. As time wore on, the redhead saw less and less of her albino friend as she had been preoccupied by her work in the lab.

Yet, here she was, fifty years later, deadlier and more efficient than ever. The lady in red had a trainee who greatly admired her and maybe even had a crush on her. She was totally over the stoic brute she once desperately hoped to one day return her love. Her job was all the more exciting with the special case she was working on, especially because she was flirting with danger by protecting the gorgeous mad legend and his lavender lover from an unjust fate. Just the thought of playing double agent set her passion aflame. Even with things looking up for her in life, she found herself sitting on the same bench outside the library, feeling glum, and staring at the now empty, nondescript white building standing apart from its peers just like that day fifty years ago.

"Bad day?" A familiar female voice with a strange accent inquired as it moved to sit beside her.

"How did you ever guess, Emily," the red reaper sighed, looking blankly at the nondescript building that was the prelude to the Rarities' tortures and the redhead's recent emotional turmoil.

"I'm an Empath, Grell, I can read minds and interpret emotions." The albino shared a warm smile with her chainsaw wielding friend. "Despite the darkness, you bring me light, and it gives me a reason to smile." Both ladies stared at the ominous building that once housed a chamber of horrors for stolen Ikiryo. "Someone ought to tear that damn building down."

"I couldn't agree more, Emily," the effeminate chainsaw wielder wholeheartedly agreed. "It makes me ill knowing it still exists." The redhead's emotional turmoil finally made its way to the surface in uncharacteristic calm curiosity. "Em, do you remember that day when those bitchy girls tried to get me to help them carry that glass box with the dead body inside of it?"

"Yes." The double agent gave her red friend a quizzical look. "Something about it is bothering you and has been for many years."

"Indeed it has! Just what the hell did an electrical engineering laboratory need with a corpse?" the reaper in red spat.

"Think back to the day we met when you toured that dreadful building with me. Remember that I told you the electrical currents you were in danger of succumbing to were simulations of a Rarity's subconscious power?"

"I do."

"The corpse was an Unwilling Host, a temporary shell, housing the oldest known Ikiryo, or what's known to my people as the Formless One. The body was necessary to house the entity for the fusion experiments. We adjusted the power levels to varying voltages to see how the body would react. The object was to determine which Rarity would be most compatible with it," the eugenicist explained. "Needless to say, the Ikiryo was not pleased with the constant electrical charges coursing through it at extreme levels. There was a point where one of my assistants nearly charred half of the corpse from improperly handling the electric cables attached to its extremities. She claimed it was an accident, but she knew that I knew she was blatantly lying. I had enough of the other engineers' maltreatment of the Ikiryo after that incident, so I took it upon myself to care for it for the remainder of the time it spent in the lab. The best means of fusion determined was through the inner corners of the eyes. It was the most humane option for both Ikiryo and Rarity, but still extremely painful to the Rarity. Ikiryo are incorporeal, so I can't tell you how they interpret pain or if they interpret it at all. That's the one part of the Ikiryo's code I've never been able to crack as pain is a paradox. We're taught to avoid it, but to feel it is to know we're alive. On a deeper level, what does it even mean to feel? Is it physical or emotional, both or neither?" The green eyed Empath sighed and continued her revelation with a heavy heart. "I've already revealed to you what I truly am, and the Ikiryo knew it as well, which is why it was easy for me to unlock its secrets. The fusion between it and Stella wasn't just random chance, Grell. You've seen her eyes, you know she can see what you can see, and you _know_ the depths of her sadistic wrath run deep. But you have also seen the perpetual innocence in her eyes. She's like you. She wants someone to love her and never lie, to show her affection, and accept her as she truly is." A guilty glow tarnished emerald eyes as the albino concluded her explanation. "I care for her very much, and my eyes darken each time I think of how I was powerless to stop them from singling little Stella out for the most brutal torture and the worst of the experiments from the other Rarities. Here I am telling you this while I still play the whore to the bastard who stole the ones I love just so I can bring down this twisted scheme from within. May the Goddess have mercy on me." 

The pretty red reaper didn't know if she should be sad or angry at her friend's horrific revelation. It was evident in the unusually tall scientist's speech that she felt the same emotional hurricane bearing down on her conscience as she did, but for different reasons. Red Death couldn't throw away a fifty year friendship over situations neither of them were willing to be in, let alone had any control over once they were in them. After all, the albino stuck it out with her when she was forced to work collections during the eugenics project as punishment for a crime committed for reasons she didn't care to think of anymore. The red lady shuddered at the memories of acts more sadistic than even she could think of. "What happened to the body?"

"It was cremated," the white haired woman answered simply. "Did you deliver the letter to Stella's caretaker?" she asked, abruptly changing subjects.

"I did, and you won't believe who it is!" the lady in red perked up.

"Oh, who is it?"

A sharp toothed Cheshire grin spread over the chainsaw wielding reaper's ruby lips. "Legendary Death," she said with a flirty wink. "But he's going by Undertaker now and runs a mortuary on the east side of London.

"Adrian Crevan? Marcus' friend is caring for her?" the eugenicist exclaimed with wide glowing eyes.

"And he's claimed her too! They are so cute together and they can't keep their hands off of each other," the reaper excitedly blurted out. "I've never seen Unnie so happy before! The way they interact with each other...They don't even talk half the time. They look into each other's eyes and they just _know._ I am so jealous." The reaper in red crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "I want to find a sweet man like that."

"I think that young man you're mentoring may be interested in you. He'd drop whatever lady he's bedding right now if you asked him on a date. Give it some thought." The Empath nudged her red friend in the ribs, earning a girlish giggle in exchange. "Legendary Death." A rueful smile crept over the scientist's lips. "Just as the Goddess intended. He's the 'pretty one' she always spoke of but never remembered. Their devotion to each other is pure and absolute. They will never sever," the abnormally tall Empath dreamily mused. "Grell?"

"What, Emily?"

"That building _really_ needs to be torn down," the female said with a dry laugh.

The lady in red joined her friend with her own arid laughter as they both gazed at the nondescript white building standing apart from its peers, that if one listened carefully, the ghosts of tortures past could still be heard wailing within the ominous walls. "I couldn't agree more."


End file.
